Personal Trainers and Social Media Marketing

Social networking is an important promotional tool for everyone from politicians to celebrities to celebrity politicians (like the Governator). Well, aside from celebrity politicians, there are also personal trainers who employ social media to get the word out about their personal training programs.

And along with them are the not-quite-celebrity personal trainers who need to get their name out there. By connecting with friends, family, colleagues, and celebrity PTs, small-time personal trainers can get quite a bit of self-promotion through social networking–if they know how to use it right. Check out the statistics and then head over to our online personal trainers for all of your custom workouts!

Personal Trainers and Social Media

Read on to see how personal trainers both big and small (no muscle-bound pun intended) are using social media to get new clients.

Social Media Statistics for Personal Trainers

25% of people in fitness & leisure consider themselves seriously invested in social media tools as a self-promotion strategy. For nearly one-third of fitness workers (30%), the money spent on promotion through social media has stayed the same over the years. These people are in the minority of personal trainers as far as the financial investment in social networking is concerned.

Nearly half (49%) use YouTube in their social networking strategy. (Keep reading to see how they target YouTube content to their best advantage.)

Much more than that (58%) are on LinkedIn, and 61% say they have at least dabbled in social media. That’s a pretty good indication that those who are using it have seen substantial success–at least enough to keep it around.

67% of fitness industry professionals say they’ve spent more money on social media over the last year than in prior years, showing that most personal trainers feel an investment in social networking is a smart investment for their overall popularity and success.

77% use Twitter as a part of their social media regimen–but what sort of content is best conveyed over Twitter? Read on to discover how personal trainers tweet.

Over 4/5 (81%) anticipate their social media budgets increasing over the next year. This means that quite a few PTs who have kept their budget the same in the past are seeing the importance of dedicating more funds toward these important promotional tools.

In the highest percentage, 85% use Facebook within their social media marketing strategy. (Below, you can find out what personal trainers seem to be the most successful using Facebook.)

Social Media Strategies for Personal Trainers

Different social networking outlets are used for different strategies. Check out how personal trainers use each platform:

Social Media Tools: Twitter and Facebook are used to display news and tips and to share media.

Online Fitness Communities: These are used to showcase websites, blogs and products for sale.

Apps: These are useful for connecting with mobile users as well as for sharing blogs and products. Imagine having a routine for the gym programmed into your phone–it’s like watching fitness tapes on the go.

Skype: Over Skype, trainers can share routines and fitness tips in real time with their fans.

YouTube: This video website is helpful for sharing routines too, as well as promoting blogs and personal products.

It’s important to know which strategies are most effective for connecting with different audiences, so that efforts aren’t wasted on the wrong platforms. For engaging with existing clients, physical trainers prefer to maintain regular tweets and weekly blogs to keep fans updated. To interact with new clients, physical trainers find that the combination of distributing a regular newsletter and holding seminars peaks interest. Within the industry, trainers like to stay connected to colleagues and mentors by creating contacts and sharing ideas.

Celebrity Fitness Trainer’s Social Media Statistics

Now, about those celebrity trainers: here are the 10 personal trainers with the most followers on their Facebook fan pages:

Diana Chaloux, Fitness Model: 25,340 likes

Personal Training Page: 22,460 likes

Micah LaCerte, Hitch Fit Online Personal Training: 17,345 likes

Danny-J, Fitness Model: 7,964 likes

Body Design Personal Training: 5,735 likes

D.A.M. Good Bodies Elite Personal Training: 5,623 likes

Max Fitness Personal Training: 4,901 likes

Forget the Gym Personal Training: 3,318 likes

Angelique – Fitness and Personal Training: 2,242 likes

STEELE Personal Training: 2,331 likes

Optum Health Social Networking Fitness Program

Optum Health developed a social networking program for fitness. It was called “Fall for Fitness,” and was a 12-week program emphasizing minutes spent exercising, total weight loss, and distance walked (by pedometer).

Of those who participated in the program, 40% of the newcomers had some high-risk factors for health problems.

70% of users were first-time participants.

80% of participants said that they would get involved with another social networking event, and fully 90% said they were satisfied with the program overall.

The first day of the program resulted in 5% engagement.

Social networking is an important element of self-promotion for any field of work. It may seem contradictory for physical trainers to sit down at a computer and type away to others sitting at their computers–“Where’s the physical activity in that?” you might say. Well, everyone has to sit down some time, and many of these social media platforms can be accessed on mobile devices too.

Lace up those running shoes, rock the short-shorts, and hit the gym with these personal trainer social media gurus! While you are in the social media mindset, check out Exercise.com’s Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for everything fitness!